{"id":5202,"date":"2020-06-17T10:47:44","date_gmt":"2020-06-17T08:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/?p=5202"},"modified":"2020-06-24T07:51:45","modified_gmt":"2020-06-24T05:51:45","slug":"technology-in-agriculture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ditech.media\/news\/agriculture-and-biological-systems\/technology-in-agriculture\/","title":{"rendered":"Technology in Agriculture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Abhilash Sethi is a Principal at Omnivore. He is currently responsible for managing existing portfolio companies along with investing in startups who are building the future of food systems. Previously, Abhilash was with Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. where he was the founding member of their Precision Farming Team. At Mahindra, he mapped the global landscape of precision agriculture technologies and developed partnerships with multiple AgriTech startups. He earned a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from NIT Warangal and an MBA from IIM Bangalore.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Can you tell me a bit about your background and your interests?\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

I am a Principal and part of the investment team with Omnivore, an agriculture technology focused venture capital fund, based out of India. My career is spread across sectors such as oil & gas, logistics, automobiles and agriculture and across functions such as operations, sales & marketing, strategy and investments. I am a mechanical engineer by training and have a master\u2019s degree in business administration.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have keen interest in agriculture, technology and international relations and I work at the intersection of my areas of interest to fund entrepreneurs who are building the future of agriculture and food systems.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How is the technology used in agriculture?\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Technology has been used in agriculture since 10,000 BC when human beings first settled down to do agriculture and started using early implements. In the past few centuries, technologies such as selective breeding, crop rotation, farm mechanization and green revolution have revolutionized agriculture to a large extent and the recent developments in digital and genetic technologies have brought us at the cusp of another revolution in agriculture. We are seeing technology being used in agriculture broadly in the following nine ways:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Farmer platforms: e-commerce solutions helping farmers to buy inputs and sell their produce<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Rural fintech: digital technologies to enable farmers get access to institutional finance<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Agribusiness SaaS: digital solutions to help farmers in bookkeeping, advisory and other day to day activities<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Precision Agriculture: sensors, remote sensing and robotic technologies to optimize input application on farms, safeguard yield and bring more control on farming operations<\/span><\/li>\n
  • B2B marketplaces: technology solutions to make agri logistics and supply chains transparent and efficient<\/span><\/li>\n
  • F2C brands: modern ways of crop production and shortening of supply chains to provide branded produce directly from farms to consumers<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Agri Biotech: advanced genetic technologies like RNAi and CRISPR to create stress resistant crops. Digital technologies are used in phenotyping to reduce lead time for developing seeds and inputs.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Innovative foods: innovation in foods such as alternate proteins to make the food systems sustainable<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Post-harvest technologies: technologies for quality assaying of produce and also for preventing spoilage\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    How much can agricultural education, extension, farmer mobilization and empowerment be achieved by the new opportunities afforded by mobile phone and web-based technologies?<\/span><\/h3>\n

    From an Indian perspective, mobile phone and internet penetration have revolutionized the way government, corporates and other stakeholders interact with farmers today. Farmers are using WhatsApp to communicate with agronomists and fellow farmers to get advisory and recommendations. YouTube and Facebook have become a major medium to learn new and advanced technologies in farming. Farmers use a variety of mobile applications and websites to access extension services, buy agriculture inputs and machinery and to sell their produce. Farmers have started using sensors and IoT technologies to get farm and machinery information which are relayed to their mobile phones through internet. Indian agriculture has seen a tremendous digital shift in the last 5 years due to internet penetration, affordable data services and smartphones and this has laid the foundation for many startups to develop and extend their services to farmers.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Why is it important for companies to innovate and invest in modern technologies?<\/span><\/h3>\n

    Having a competitive edge is very important for a business to remain a going concern. This competitive edge can be achieved in various functions of a company such as R&D, sales, manufacturing, human resource and supply chain through innovation and modern technologies. Continuous innovation in products and processes is required to\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n